The Land Where Time Stands Still: Sylvester
by TheNewIdea
Summary: The first of many stories that connect the Disney- Looney Tune canon, the concept is inspired from Who Framed Roger Rabbit and based off of a manuscript that I have written. It is the story of Sylvester as he attempts to prove himself in a world that only sees him as the bad guy and the friends who try to help him through difficult times by doing what they do best.


In the Land Where Time Stands Still, the place where all cartoons reside, a whistling tune could be heard through the forest. It was the kind of tune that one could walk to, the kind of tune that everyone knows that everything was okay.

Our whistler was Sylvester, who was making his way towards his home when he came upon a realization. He looked down at the road and let his tail drag the ground for a moment; the dirt was warm against the fur that touched it. Sylvester continued along the road, he was no longer whistling and began to think.

_"When people look at me"_ Sylvester began, _"They see a bird chasing, heartless cat, if only because of Tweety's innocence."_

To Sylvester's right was Bugs Bunny's hole, to his left was a small cave that was home to Wile E. Coyote. The path went deeper into the forest.

_"But the thing is"_ Sylvester continued as he looked up at the tree line, _"I'm not the bad guy."_

Tweety was sitting on a branch of a nearby tree. Sylvester, upon seeing Tweety, tried to ignore him and walked on his way. Tweety however, wasn't having it, for now he had been provoked. Tweety swooped down and got directly in Sylvester's face.

"Morning putty" Tweety said his tone less than friendly. Sylvester sighed deeply, stopped walking and stared at Tweety, his eyes tried from the night he had had at the studio.

"Good morning" Sylvester answered, trying his best to be cheerful and obviously failing, or at least seemingly failing in the effort.

Tweety smiled deviously and silted his eyes, almost daring Sylvester to make a move, "So it's good morning now?" Tweety asked egging Sylvester on, "You're not going to chase me, eat me or even try?"

Sylvester huffed and pushed through Tweety, only for the bird to get right back in the cat's face, causing Sylvester to stop once again.

"You know I don't do that" Sylvester replied

"But you do" Tweety answered as he got closer.

Sylvester at this point was half tempted to swipe the bird with his claw, but he remained motionless.

"That's not what I meant" Sylvester continued

"Then what did you mean?" Tweety pressed his question naive despite the fact that Tweety knew exactly what Sylvester was talking about.

Sylvester rolled his eyes and answered anyway, "I'm not really a bad guy just-"

Tweety cut him off before he could finish.

"If you're not the bad guy, then why do people see you that way?"Tweety asked nefariously

Sylvester growled annoyingly and pushed Tweety out of his way.

"You know perfectly well" Sylvester exclaimed as he walked away

"Remind me" Tweety dared, causing Sylvester to stop dead in his tracks and whip around, infuriated that Tweety had the nerve to even say such a thing.

Sylvester walked right back up to Tweety and got in his face, for he wasn't one to stab people in the back, if you had a problem with him, he'd tell you outright.

"You're a real jerk and everyone knows it" Sylvester began, "You've been standing in the spotlight for years pretending to be something that you're obviously not!"

Tweety smiled and mockingly bowed at this, "I try" he replied.

"Just once, one time I'd like to do something good" Sylvester cried, not really caring if Tweety responded or not. Unfortunately he did.

"That'll never happen" Tweety said coldly.

"Taking back what I said earlier" Sylvester hissed, "You're just a plain asshole!"

Tweety laughed in disbelief and produced his own bark and it had bite.

"Look bud, let's get one thing straight" Tweety began with a New York accent that caused Sylvester to raise his eyebrows in confusion.

"Why are you trying to threatening me?" the cat asked," With a terrible Brooklyn accent I might add?"

Tweety ignored him and continued as if Sylvester didn't speak at all.

"I don't like you; I don't like anyone here-" Sylvester laughed at Tweety's statement, "That's no reason to threaten people with empty words and looks" Sylvester replied, "and seriously the Brooklyn thing really?"

Tweety still ignored him.

"You're nothing" Tweety continued putting even more emphasis on his accent, "You will always be nothing; you will never have the adoration that you crave."

Sylvester shook his head, it was obvious that he wasn't going to get through to Tweety; he was too narrow minded and thick headed to think otherwise.

"I'm not asking for anything" Sylvester said, "And stop stealing Bugs' accent!"

Tweety laughed hardheartedly, "That's rich!" he began, "You're a selfish, lying cheat! Always getting in the way of things and never looking past your meals. You're a moocher, a fly and a slave to your conscious!"

Sylvester at this point had given up completely at reasoning with the bird and wanted nothing more than to go home.

"I'm sorry" Sylvester answered, his voice now sounding even more exhausted than before, "Were you going somewhere with this? Cause I lost interest about three minutes ago."

Tweety shook his head in disbelief, "Just do your job" he demanded as he flew away, "You have to be the bad guy. It's all your good for."

Sylvester wasn't going to let Tweety have the last word on the issue and so commented for one last time before finally leaving the conversation for good.

"Okay clearly you have some egotistical issues to work out"

Tweety was already gone, Sylvester shook his head and continued for the sake of himself.

"Also stop copying people, it's really annoying!"

Sylvester turned around and made his way down the path. Sylvester looked up and smiled a bit, feeling as if he had won.

_"Didn't see that coming did you?"_ he said to himself and whoever happened to be listening, _"Me either, well actually I did but more on that later."_

Sylvester came upon a large mound on the side of the road. This was the mound of Mac and Tosh Gopher, otherwise known as the Goofy Gophers. Sylvester initially paid no mind and decided to walk a bit further down the path to give them some privacy but still be able to hear them and watch whatever it was they were doing. Sylvester then began to think about his situation with Tweety. Mac and Tosh at the moment were sitting on top of the mound watching Sylvester and at the same time wondering what it was they should do about the situation that they had no business being involved with in the first place.

"Look at that sad sack of meat" Mac said to Tosh

"Should we help him?" Tosh asked with a slight bit of concern in his voice.

"I think not" Mac replied dismissively

"Well what can we do?" Tosh asked, bored out of his mind and just wanting to do something, anything to put his mind at ease.

"We can redecorate the house" Mac said excitedly, a light kindled in his eyes at the thought.

"We did that yesterday" Tosh replied extremely annoyed and at the moment hating his life and that Mac was in it.

"Quite right" Mac answered immediately.

There was an awkward pause; it lasted for about seven seconds. Tosh awkwardly began the conversation once more.

"I'm beginning to question your sexuality" Tosh began

"Me?" Mac asked, put off and offended.

"Yes you!" Tosh continued, "You talk about the most feminine things: decor, flowers, sad romantic movies and worst of all, your personality!"

"My personality?" Mac said somewhat sadly, hurt by Tosh's remark and at the same time confused.

Tosh nodded, "It's all very feminine" he admitted gravely.

Mac turned towards Tosh; he was more confused than hurt at this point.

"Isn't that the point?" he asked.

Tosh shook his head, "We're supposed to be pompous and annoying, not gay."

Mac huffed playfully, "I'll have to change that then."

Tosh sighed annoyingly and answered sarcastically, "For better or worse?"

At this Mac shot up excitedly, "I'd thought you never ask!"

Tosh slapped his head with his paw in complete disbelief.

"You're such an idiot!" Tosh yelled, "No, that's not what I meant!"

Mac calmed down and stared at Tosh hoping for an explanation. Before Tosh could speak, Mac gave one.

"I want to be with people like Veronica...not you."

At the prospect of Veronica, Tosh immediately became overly excited once again, "Oh what fun, we can talk about the latest fashions!"

Tosh shook his head annoyingly once again, "Sometimes I don't think you understand a word I'm saying."

Mac didn't hear him and continued going over all the things that they were going to that was never going to happen in a million years, at least not if Tosh had anything to say about it.

"Ohh, I know. We can make friendship bracelets, and have tea." Mac immediately became serious for no reason.

"It'll be great! You should call her right now!"

Tosh gave no response and simply looked towards the sky. "Please kill me now" he cried.

"Go on" Mac demanded, "Get to it!"

Tosh was close to slapping Mac as hard as he was able to, as a result he exploded in Mac's face, his face ridden with anger and his paws clenched, a little bit of blood could be felt on the inside of his palm but Tosh didn't care.

"Will you shut up for two minutes?" Tosh screamed," I can't take this anymore!"

Mac was completely oblivious and laughed playfully, "You're funny Tosh, always the kidder!"

Tosh huffed and had given up on Tosh and slowly began to calm himself down, _"Again"_ Tosh thought to himself, _"You're supposed to be the intelligent one?"_

At that moment Sylvester came up the road.

"Lord have mercy on my soul, here he is now!" Tosh mumbled to himself as the cat reached the mound.

"How's it going Gophers?" Sylvester asked with concern as he lazily cleaned his claws of dirt

"Peachy keen" Tosh answered abruptly.

"Oh good" Sylvester replied, "I was worried something was wrong"

"I was being sarcastic" Tosh corrected, "This is hell!"

Sylvester laughed and shrugged, thinking the Gophers' situation over. "Well what did you expect?" the cat asked, "Like you were going to get along forever?"

Tosh looked down at then back at Sylvester; his eyes were brooding and festering with evil intentions.

"I've never been this close to committing murder before!" Tosh declared to no one in particular.

Tosh and Sylvester looked towards Mac who had gone back into the mound and was now in a long, extravagant wedding dress. Tosh leaned in towards Sylvester.

"Seriously" Tosh continued, "if he doesn't stop and get the hint I'm going to kill him- violently...with a fork!"

Sylvester nodded and turned to Mac.

"He's not interested" the cat explained.

"But-?" Mac started to say before Sylvester cut him off again.

"He's not interested. Go find someone else."

Mac laughed and dismissed the notion completely.

"Well of course he's interested" Mac replied, "We're soul mates!"

Tosh shook his head, "You have a funny idea on "mating" don't you?" he asked rather coldly.

Mac once again, was oblivious, "Do you think we're ready for that?"

Tosh sighed annoyingly and gave his answer, "You are perhaps the stupidest person I have ever met. And that's saying something considering that I'm surrounded by idiots." Tosh immediately turned towards Sylvester, catching himself, "No offense."

Sylvester only shook this off, "None taken" he replied.

Mac ruffled himself up, "Well if you're serious" he began, "I'll just slip into something more...comfortable."

Mac then disappeared once again inside the mound.

Sylvester turned towards Tosh, "I suggest you run" the cat advised, "Fast."

Tosh laughed as he jumped off the mound and headed for the forest, "Believe me I'm running" the gopher cried, "Far away to the end of the universe!"

Tosh then ran off as fast as he could into the forest while Sylvester continued down the path towards his home.

The Warner Brothers Conference Room was a down a long narrow hallway, across from the large studio where the shorts were created. The room had a red floor, it was almost maroon in nature, the walls were a complementing grey, dark, but not dark enough to be considered black. Taking up most of the space was the large oak rectangular conference table that was surrounded by comfortable office chairs. Sitting at the head of this table was Friz Freleng, Director of Warner Brothers, specifically for the Sylvester and Tweety shorts. To Freleng's right sat Mel Blanc, the Man of a Thousand Voices, whose voice in terms of the Looney Tunes closely resembled Sylvester's. Across from Mel were Bob McKimson and Bob Clampett, both directors in their own right.

Freleng stood up and looked around the room, when he was sure that he had everyone's attention he began to speak.

"Gentlemen I think you all know why we are here"

McKimson leaned forward anxiously as if he wanted to be anywhere but where he was.

"Who called this meeting?" he asked curiously, his eyebrows shifting up and down in the process.

"I did" Mel replied, as he turned towards McKimson and then back to Freleng, "Now it you don't mind Friz I'll take it from here."

Sylvester meanwhile was still making his way to his house when suddenly a zipper appeared. The zipper, one of the many things that served as a portal to the Land and the real world, was opened to the conference room. Sylvester stopped and looked inside, he could see Mel making some kind of argument.

"Let's see where this goes" Sylvester said to himself as he stepped closer, Mel's voice could now be heard perfectly.

"It's come to my attention that a matter of human rights is at hand" Mel began, stern and composed, the issue obviously a serious one.

"What are you talking about?" Clampett asked, unsure if he was going to like what it was he was hearing.

"I'm talking about Sylvester" Mel explained

"What about him?" Freleng pressed, his curiosity also peaked.

Mel shook his head in pity; he decided there was only one way to make them see what was going on, so Mel began speaking in Sylvester's voice.

"For years I've chased that Tweety Bird, and for years I've always been kicked down, never given a chance to be anything else."

McKimson, Clampett and Freleng stared at each other and then back at Mel, their faces of disbelief saying everything that needed to be said.

"Is he serious right now?" McKimson asked, wanted to be sure that he wasn't the only one hearing Mel.

"Apparently" Clampett answered, confirming that McKimson was unfortunately, completely sane.

Mel continued in Sylvester's voice as if McKimson and Clampett had said nothing to begin with.

"Personally I'm sick of it!"

Freleng stepped forward, he was still trying to wrap his head around the situation and what Mel was saying, it was an impossible idea to even so much as to consider believing that it was laughable.

"You're not making sense Mel" Freleng said

Sylvester, who at this point was listening in, responded in Mel's place, "He's making perfect sense, keep going!" No one heard this of course and simply continued on without interruption.

"This is getting weird" McKimson whispered to Clampett, who nodded in full agreement.

"You're telling me" Clampett replied, matching McKimson's tone of voice as both of them moved to stand.

"Sit down" Mel demanded, for some reason still speaking in Sylvester's voice, "I'm not finished yet!"

Freleng sighed and stood up, making his way towards the door. "You need help Mel" he said sadly, "Fast."

At this Sylvester stepped into the conference room, Mel smiled, for as soon as this happened Sylvester became visible to him. Freleng, McKimson and Clampett remained oblivious to Sylvester's presence.

Sylvester climbed on top of the table and turned towards Freleng, the man who he considered to be part of his family, and spoke with all the conviction he could muster in the world.

"Can't you give a guy a break?" Sylvester asked desperately.

Freleng rolled his eyes, for he heard Sylvester's voice but believed that Mel was still speaking.

"That's not funny Mel" Freleng replied as he continued on his way to the door.

"I didn't do anything" Mel answered, causing Freleng to stop in his tracks.

Sylvester picked up a coffee cup, to Freleng it appeared as if the cup was floating in mid-air, McKimson and Clampett said nothing and simply observed in complete confusion, believing themselves to be mad.

"I want to change!" Sylvester screamed, at the same time he threw the cup towards the wall shattering it in a million pieces, "Do you have any idea what's it's like to be hated?"

"We-we-can't do it" Clampett answered fearfully, for a moment thinking that was he in the presence of a ghost.

"It would cut into our profits" McKimson pointed out, keeping his composure for the time being.

Freleng looked around, he tried and desperately failed to figure out the source of the voice and found nothing, in desperation for an answer he turned to Mel.

"What's going on?" he asked straightly

"I could tell you" Mel said with a laugh, "But then you wouldn't believe me."

Freleng shook his head and turned in the direction that he believed the voice to be coming from; coincidently it was where Sylvester was standing to begin with.

"What do you want?" Freleng continued, extremely annoyed and simply wanting to go home.

"I'm tired of being the bad guy" Sylvester explained

Freleng looked up at the ceiling, believing the voice to be coming from that direction, despite the fact that Sylvester answered him the first time and that he the coffee cup held up and then smashed directly in front of him on the table.

"I'm right in front of you" Sylvester directed

Freleng rolled his eyes in his own stupidity, "I can't see you" he admitted.

This caused Sylvester to turn back to Mel, "Really?" the cat replied, only getting a shrug from Mel in response, Sylvester shaking his head as a result.

"It's not that simple" Freleng explained sorrowfully

"Why can't it be?" Sylvester cried helplessly, "You're the director!"

After a few moments of silence from Freleng, Sylvester sighed and turned around heading back the way he came.

"Promise you'll think about it?" Sylvester begged, his eyes hopeful as he turned towards Mel just as he closed the zipper, allowing the meeting to continue.

Mel hung his head, "I'm sorry" he whispered to himself.

Once Sylvester was gone Clampett and McKimson immediately voiced their opinion on the issue, for the time being accepting the fact that Sylvester was somehow in the room.

"He's crazy" Clampett began

Mel laughed, "He's not crazy" he defended.

McKimson huffed in disbelief, "He's a cartoon Mel!" he screamed.

"That may be" Mel said, at the same time cutting McKimson off, "But he is still an American."

McKimson and Clampett looked at each other and then back at Mel, mirroring their stares from minutes ago.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Clampett replied curiously, wanting a true answer instead of dodges or mysticism typical of Mel, at least in his eyes.

"He has rights just like everybody else" Mel continued

Freleng sighed; he had to agree with McKimson and Clampett even though his heart was with Sylvester in every possible way, on this issue it was just too much to simply go along with it.

"What you're talking about is insane" Freleng berated

"Freleng" Mel replied with equal force, "I don't want to hear another word out of you. Either you're with me or you're out of a job."

Freleng crossed his arms, daring Mel to put a stake to his claim, "You don't have that authority Mel" the director replied knowingly.

"You're right, I don't." Mel admitted, "But if you don't do this you'll be out of here in two weeks."

McKimson huffed, "Making him have a personality was a mistake" he exclaimed, once again voicing his negativity across the room.

"Last I checked" Mel corrected, "You didn't give him a personality. I did."

"Why?" Clampett asked, either having had forgotten the reason or simply because he didn't know it.

"Because it was the right thing to do Bob" Mel answered simply, "Just like letting him change is the right thing to do now."

Clampett shook his head and put his hand on the door, "its not possible Mel" he said as he walked out.

McKimson, with Clampett gone, had one more thing to say, it was the only positive thing that he said the entire meeting. Leaning in towards Mel and Freleng, he voiced his opinion one final time.

"I really wish we could...I really do...But Clampett has a point."

McKimson then exited the room, heading the same direction as Clampett, leaving Freleng and Mel to themselves.

Freleng gave a long sigh and nodded to himself, it was the kind of nod-sigh combination that spoke of resolve and meaning, the kind that anyone would give when faced with a life changing decision.

"If we're going to do this" Freleng suggested, "Let's get a plan together."

Mel only smiled as he stood up and left the room, Freleng following close behind as they both left the studio for the day.


End file.
